Page 36 - New English Book L

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I have translated the above paragraph from the
only copy of the Bible at my disposal, lent to me by an
Assyrian woman cousin in her own vernacular language.
Nevertheless, let us consult the English versions of the
Bible, which we find have rendered the original Hebrew
words himda and shalom into “desire” and “peace”
respectively.

Jewish and Christian commentators alike have given
the utmost importance to the double promise contained
in the above prophecy. They both understand a messianic
prediction in the word Himda. Indeed, here is a wonderful
prophecy confirmed by the usual biblical formula of the
divine oath, “says the Lord Sabaoth,” four times repeated.
If this prophecy were taken in the abstract sense of the
words himda and shalom as “desire” and “peace,” then
the prophecy becomes nothing more than an unintelligible
aspiration. However, if we understand by the term himda
a concrete idea, a person and reality, and in the word
shalom, not a condition, but a living and active force and
a definitely established religion, then this prophecy must
be admittedly true and fulfilled in the person of Ahmed
and the establishment of Islam. For himda and shalom - or
shlama have precisely the same significance respectively
as Ahmed and Islam.

Before endeavouring to prove the fulfilment of this
prophecy, it will be well to explain the etymology of the
two words as briefly as possible:-

(a) Himda. Unless I am mistaken, the clause in the
original Hebrew text reads thus. “ve yavu himdath kol
haggoyim,” which literally rendered into English would
be “and will come the Himda of all nations.” The final hi
in Hebrew, as in Arabic, is changed into th, or t when in the
genitive case. The word is derived from an archaic Hebrew
-or rather Aramaic- root hmd (consonants pronounced
hemed). In Hebrew hemed is generally used in the sense of